Only three cryptocurrency firms made Forbes’ annual list of 50 innovative fintech companies: Chainalysis, Fireblocks and Gauntlet. To qualify for consideration, companies had to be privately owned and based in the U.S.
Chainalyis is a blockchain analytics firm that specializes in examining and tracking crypto transactions. The New York-based company, which has raised $535 million and was valued at $8.6 billion in May 2022 according to Forbes, cut 15% of its workforce in October, adding to a 5% cut in February 2023. It notably published a report on the funding of terrorism following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks and hostage-taking in Israel, refuting a Wall Street Journal report on the subject.
Fireblocks, also based in New York, specializes in crypto safekeeping technologies such as multiparty computation (MPC) and services big bank clients including HSBC, BNY Mellon and BNP Paribas. It provides the software for custody services, treasury management and payments services, and last year spent $10 million on tokenization firm Blockfold to expand its product range. The company has raised $1 billion, Forbes reported, and was valued at $8 billion as of January 2022.
Gauntlet is a financial risk modeling and simulation platform. The company, which like the other two is based in New York, was named by Bank of America as one of the platforms driving the evolution of DeFi applications. The company says it protects $9 billion of customer assets and lists decentralized exchange Uniswap, lending platform Aave and Web3 gaming platform Immutable among its clients. The firm has raised $45 million and in March 2022 was valued about $1 billion, according to Forbes.
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